SNECI supports the European leader in sustainable automotive batteries through its industrialization
In order to launch its new production lines, our client ordered a cell assembly line from a specialist supplier based in China.
Not having the internal resources to ensure the proper assembly of this new line in China and given the global health context with travel restrictions, quarantines, additional costs… our client asked us to provide a locally based Process Industrialization Expert who could support them in the following phases:
- Equipment design
- Equipment manufacturing
- Equipment acceptance testing
Our expert, a process industrialization engineer from our subsidiary SNECI China, was tasked with being our client’s “eyes and ears” on site to ensure the successful assembly of this new cell assembly line.
Duration of the mission :
This phase of design, manufacture and acceptance testing of the equipment lasted 6 months and continued afterwards with the dismantling, transport and reassembly of the assembly line in France.
Details of the assignment :
Our process industrialization engineer provided strong industrial support for the “Cell Assembly” line, as well as monitoring of indicators (planning, costs) linked to suppliers.
This industrial support for the cell assembly line included all stages of the process, from notching (cutting the tabs directly on the electrode rolls) to filling the electrolyte and closing the cells.
Equipment design phase
During this phase, the main tasks were to :
- Attend weekly meetings with suppliers in China and our client’s teams in Europe to ensure that all open items are correctly directed by the suppliers
- Collect all missing documents (electrical drawings, FMEA, training manuals, nomenclature, etc.) and alert the industrialisation team in the event of non-conformity.
Equipment manufacturing phase
During this phase, the main tasks were to :
- Follow closely the manufacturing phase of the equipment and to inform the suppliers in case of modifications requested by the Industrialization team in France.
- Inform the industrialization team in case of problems with suppliers (delays, costs,…), and solve them directly in case of low level problems.
- Support suppliers in improving safety, quality of equipment and continuously reducing costs and delivery times.
- Prepare acceptance tests on the suppliers’ site, based on a checklist established by the industrialisation team in France, and update it if necessary
- Manage all raw materials required for acceptance testing.
Equipment acceptance testing
During this phase the main tasks were to :
- Coordinate subcontractors to assess the conformity of the equipment to CE (European certification) and labelling during acceptance testing
- Optimize acceptance tests between suppliers and the industrialization team by anticipating certain tests
- Attend acceptance tests
- Monitor open points and ensure that they are all closed before the equipment is shipped
- Follow the schedule and conditions of packaging/shipping
In parallel, our support also provided competitive intelligence, benchmarking for new cells or processes and organizing tests to identify whether or not this would be relevant.
Subsequently, we also supported our client in the launch of this new airframe assembly line from China to France through
- Preparation of the transport material from China
- Supervision of the assembly of the line in our client’s factory in France
- Validation & restart of the new cell assembly line
The results for our client:
Thanks to our intervention, our client, who was technically unable to supervise and control his supplier’s factory on the other side of the world, was able to benefit from a complete, local and reactive support system, allowing him to avoid this constraint.
In addition, thanks to our subsidiary in China, we were able to put a local resource closer to the suppliers in terms of culture and language barrier to avoid any risk of misunderstanding.
This allowed our client to save money, time and above all to meet deadlines and deliverables.
Our client did not have to bear the costs of travel, own resources and the complexity of a supplier in another language, on the other side of the world with + 7 hours of time difference.
SNECI and support in industrialization:
450 technical experts within the SNECI Group and 10 subsidiaries worldwide enable us to offer tailor-made, responsive, local and agile support in improving industrial performance.
We support you on industrial projects (launches, transfers, optimization, etc.), thanks to our experts in process engineering and supplier development, in order to control the quality, cost and deadline aspects.
Our expertise includes :
- Support during production launches
- Production transfers, from re-engineering and dismantling of equipment to production start-up on the new site, including transport and product quality validation
- Factory support and industrial reorganization
- Management of critical suppliers during the start of production in terms of quality, cost and lead time
- Outsourcing of your support functions, internalization of expert resources
- Regular monitoring and reporting throughout the project phases
Our advantages are various :
- Control of quality, cost and deadline aspects
- Management of risks and opportunities
- Technical, quality, industrial reorganization and supplier management skills
- Expertise in the industrial world and benchmarks enabling us to guarantee the optimization of production lines
- Implementation of tailor-made and innovative solutions integrating new technologies (dematerialization, robotization, factory 4.0…) to increase your performance
- Integration of sustainable development issues
- International experience to ensure the success of local projects
If you would also like to benefit from our industrialization support, please contact us on our website via the contact us tab.
